


The Doomed Prince

by UndeadWithoutCoffee



Series: The Doomed Prince Collection [1]
Category: Ancient Egyptian Religion
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-21
Updated: 2019-04-21
Packaged: 2020-01-23 05:28:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18543220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UndeadWithoutCoffee/pseuds/UndeadWithoutCoffee
Summary: The Tale of the doomed Prince, or a story without  ending. Happy or otherwise. My translation, made during a reading class.





	The Doomed Prince

**Author's Note:**

> My translation from hieroglyphics of an ancient egyptian fairy tale during a college class. My comments are marked like this: (comment: XXXX)
> 
> Anything not clear? Feel free to ask. :)
> 
> I'm posting this as the first part of a writer's challenge were we are supposed to incorporate this story into a fanfic somehow (either by quotes or mentioning it).

  
Once there lived a king and no son was born to him. He prayed to the gods asking for a son and the gods ordered that he was born. His wife was pregnant and fullfilled the months until birth and had a son. The Hathors came to predict the fortune of the  
child and said: He will be killed either by a crocodile, a snake or a dog.  
  
The men around the prince listened and repeated the words for his majesty _(LHG - very common it means living whole and healthy in German, Leben Heil Gesund)_.  
  
The heart of his majesty _(LHG)_ grew sad and ordered the construction of a building  
made of stone in the middle of the desert. It was equipped with men and all nice things of the palace and the prince did not have to leave it.  
  
After the prince became adult he stepped upon the roof of his house. There he saw a dog who followed a grown man on the path.  
  
He said to the servant beside him: „What is this that is following the grown man on the path?"  
  
The servant said to him: „It is a dog."  
  
The prince replied: „ Let one like this be brought to me!"  
  
And so the servant went to his majesty _(LHG)_ and told him what the prince said to him.  
The kind replied: „Let a shaker _(comment: that's a very small and thus clumsy puppy)_ be seized because of the uproar in his heart."  
  
So a dog was seized.  
  
As the days passed, the prince grew of age _(comment: it literally says he became an adult on all his body)_. And he sent _(comment: a letter most likely)_ to his father with the words: „ What will come while I sit here? See I belong to destiny _(comment: or doom, hence the title)_. Make that I am released, let me do what my heart says until the god does as he desires!"  
  
So they prepared a chariot for him, equipped with everything for war. And a servant was given to him as a companion _(comment: literally placed behind him)_. And he was brought to the eastern shore _(comment: I assume they meant the western desert as a place where the boy's stone house was built, an interesting notion as this is usually the place for building graves)_.  
  
It was said to him: „Please go as your wish is."  
  
And his dog was with him. So he went, as was his wish, to the north through the desert (the eastern desert) and it was because of the wild animals that he lived.  
  
And he arrived at the Realm of Naharina.  
  
The ruler of Naharina had no children save one daughter, a woman _(comment: that means she's an adult not a child)_ and a house was built for her with windows 70 Ellen _(comment thats roughly 35 meters)_ away from the ground. Then he summoned all the sons of all rulers of Syria and said to them: „This concerns him who reaches the window of my daughter: She will become his wife."  
  
Many days passed as they were busy with their doings _( i.e. Trying to reach the window)_ as the prince came to them. They took the prince into their house and cleansed him. They gave fodder to his horses and cared for the prince _(comment: literally: they did every thing for the prince)_. They anointed him and treated both his feet that were sore from the travel. They gave food to his companion and they told him in the way of a conversation: „Where are you from beautiful boy?"  
  
He said to them: I am the son of the driver of a chariot from Egypt. My mother died. My father took another wife who is my stepmother. She started to hate me and I fled from there."  
  
Then they embraced and kissed him.  
  
After many days had passed he said the the rulers' sons: "What is this that you are doing?"  
  
They said to him: "Up to today it is 3 months that we are spending our time jumping. And he who reaches the window of the ruler's daughter will recieve her as a wife."  
  
He said to them: "If I was not sick at my two feet I would jump with you."  
  
And they went to jump as it was their custom every day and the prince watched them.  
Then the face of the daughter of the ruler of Naharina was on him (literally her face was on him).  
  
As many days passed the prince went with the rulers' sons to jump with them. He jumped and reached the window of the ruler's daughter. She kissed him and embraced him.  
  
Then someone went to report this to her father. They said to the ruler: "A man has reached you daughter's window."  
  
The ruler of Naharina asked: "The son of which ruler was it?"  
  
They said to him: "The son of an Egyptian chariot driver who has fled his stepmother."  
  
The ruler of Naharina became angry about this and said: "Should I give my daughter to a fugitive of egypt? Make it that he leaves."  
  
So they went to the prince and told him: "Please go to where you came from."  
  
But the daughter held him and prayed to the god: "As long as Pre-Harachte lasts, if they take him from me I will not eat and not drink and I will die that moment."  
  
The messenger went to tell the father what his daughter had said. He sent men to kill the prince and the daughter said to these men: "If you kill him and the sun goes down I will be dead. I will not spent 1 hour at living longer than him."  
  
They went to report this to the father and he had the boy and his daughter brought to him. As he saw the princely appearance of the boy he embraced him and kissed him and said to him: "Tell me of your life as you are like my son."  
The boy said to him: "I am the son of the driver of a chariot from Egypt. My mother died. My father took another wife who is my stepmother. She started to hate me and I fled from there."  
   
The ruler of Naharina gave his daughter as wife to him He gave him a house and a field and animals and every pleasent thing. As now since many days had passed, the boy said to his wife: "I have three fates: the crocodile, the serpent (or) the dog."  
  
She said to him: " Make that the dog, who is behind you, killed"  
  
He said to her: "I will not have this dog killed who was with me when he was small."  
  
Now she started to watch over him and did not let him go out alone. It happened that in the town where he lived with his wife there was a lake and in it's middle a crocodile. And a Strong One was within who did not let the crocodile leave. And the crocodile did not let the Strong One leave. For the duration fo three months they fought every day when the sun rose.  
  
As many days had passed the boy spent a pleasant day in his house. At night he laid on his bed and fell asleep. His wife filled a bowl with wine and another with beer. A snake came to bite the boy but the wife sat at his side and was not sleeping. She placed the bowls infront of the snake. The snake drank and became drunk and laid down. The wife let it be cut in pieces with an axe and woke her husband to tell him: "Look, your god gave one of your dooms into your hand. He will protect you."  
  
So he sacrificed and thanked the god and praised his power every day.

_(comment: so this is the situation now, the rest ist rather fragmentary, so I will refrain from using the "real" translation any further and instead write a summary.)_

The prince and his dog continue living as before and one day he went out with the dog while his wife did not watch him. There at some point something happens and the man and the dog are running down to the shore. There is a theory that the dog was chasing his owner after attacking him but also that both are running from something else entirely. The man runs into the water, fleeing from whatever it is behind him and is seized by the crocodile.

The crocodile then says that he is indeed the man's doom _( comment: before man and dog start running the dog says something to the man and one theory is that it also reveals it's self as the man's doom)_ but will let him go if he can  fight  the Strong One for him so that it will be freed from the lake.

The last line of the story shows the attack of the Strong One coming to the boy.


End file.
